The burdens of being an adult telepath among teens
by just delete this account
Summary: At this age, reading people—with or without intruding their thoughts— was as natural as breathing to him.     So yes, Charles didn't need telepathic abilities in order to see that obviously Sean Cassidy and Alexander Summers fancied each other.


GAH! Why is it that I always fall for pairings that no one else seems to like XP? *sits in the havoc/banshee ship while perishing from loneliness* :'( oh my sad life, dammit Havok and Banshee Y U MAKE ME SHIP U TWO SO HARD! Honestly, I don't even know why exactly I like these two other than the fact that they look good together and have good potential as a couple. (maybe it's just my redheadxblond fetish, MattxMello, SasoDei, NaruGaa, AND NOW, havoc/Banshee lol) but anyway, I suppose it matters not for here I am posting a silly little oneshot about them XD

Hope u enjoy it u guys ^^

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><p>Usually, whenever Charles stumbled upon circumstances similar to this one, it was with the aid of his abilities. This time however, he didn't need to read minds in order to see. It was hard not to really, especially for him, given the advantage that he's had all his life. At this age, reading people—with or without intruding their thoughts— was as natural as breathing to him.<p>

So yes, he didn't need telepathic abilities in order to see that _obviously_ Sean Cassidy and Alexander Summers fancied each other.

It wasn't so obvious at first, a few stolen glances here and there, making subtle efforts to sit next to each other whenever they could, normal little things that one would expect from individuals who enjoyed each other's company.

Then the glances turned to staring and the constant togetherness…well just turned even more constant, helped tremendously by the fact that the only other boy their age in the entire place was Hank and where the taller boy preferred to spend most of his time holed up in the lab doing experiments and reading books, both Sean and Alex would rather happily scale the highest point of the mansion and jump to their deaths than even consider the boredom that would befall them if they ever chose to spend their time like that.

So, Sean and Alex turned to best friends who were persistently around each other, talking, hanging out and causing minor mayhem around the mansion during and in between training. Charles only had to take one glance at them running down the halls with Hank hot on their heels, wide grins plastered to both of their faces as they glanced at each other to think. _Ah, well, looks like Raven isn't the only one seeking romantic companionship in another adolescent in this house_

With how they were with each other, Charles was surprised that they didn't just come right out and hit it off. He found no reason why they didn't considering no one would judge them if they did, after all, all of them were social outcasts already to some degree. It puzzled him so that though the matter was incredibly private and he deemed it rude to pry, his curiosity got the better of him and he ransacked their minds for the answers while they were eating dinner one night.

He confirmed what he already knew, or suspected at least. Women held no attraction for Alex and Sean _thought_ that he was "straight" as narrow-minded heterosexuals liked to label themselves these days but yes, he was indeed attracted to Alex. The information did nothing to even remotely quell the curiosity raging in his mind and so Charles decided to delve deeper. He felt guilty for what he found and felt that he got just what he deserved in wanting to help but knowing that he intruded enough and he can not.

See, the problem was that Alex already had several bad experiences regarding relationships. Not a surprising fact, considering it's Alex and he was only too cautious around Sean seeing as Sean behaved like a perfectly normal, average, girl-chasing teenage boy. As for Sean, as Charles would've theorized had he not decided to jump straight into their heads, his attraction to Alex was very new to him and he was having a little trouble dealing with it. That wasn't the bigger problem in his case though.

What was mostly holding Sean back was that he thought that he was too _plain_ in comparison to Alex. Not just physically speaking but also taking into consideration the incredibly contrasting lives that they lead before Charles and Erik found them. Sean wondered what exactly it was that Alex did to land him in prison, Alex never wanted to talk about it and the question was practically eating Sean's mind whole. And from his morbid curiosity there stemmed very Sean-like thoughts like

_He's __**so**__ badass_

_He was in solitary confinement at 17, compared to that I'm just a loser_

_Someone like that would never want anything to do with someone like me_

And what not. Charles looked over at Alex then, who stole a glance at Sean for only a few seconds but with a look that was filled with something that was too easy for Charles to see, given what he knew and a part of Charles wanted to turn to Sean and say _No, Sean, you are quite wrong, Alex _very much_ wants to have something to do with you_. Knowing that would most likely cause a commotion at the table though, he kept his mouth shut.

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><p>"You do know that Banshee and Havok are just dying to jump each other right?"<p>

Completely unruffled, Charles looked up from the thick volume he was reading and regarded Raven over the rim of his glasses with raised eyebrows.

"Yes. Why?"

To his curiosity, Raven looked like she was going to start biting her nails or jumping up and down repeatedly in agitation any second and just as he opened his mouth to ask, she suddenly lunged forward and dropped by his side, hands clutching and tugging at his arm in the way she always did whenever she was asking him for something he didn't want to give her.

"They're in the lounge in the west wing, _alone_, I just left them and they're _drunk_. You know something's bound to happen! Spy on them and show me what's going on! Please, the anticipation is killing me!" she whined.

Charles drew back with an incredulous look. "What? No, Raven that is a major intrusion of priva- hold on did you say they were drunk? How did they even— all that's in the fridge is low alcohol champagne and,"

Suddenly Raven looked incredibly innocent. "I don't know. There's not much to do here other than train, maybe they just found the cellar while they were walking around."

Charles raised an eyebrow slowly and stared at her until she fidgeted and released a heavy sigh.

"Okay fine, I _might_ have grabbed the vodka by accident and put them in their glasses when we ran out of soda."

Charles' jaw dropped open. "Raven!" he said in a reprimanding tone.

"Oh come on! You know I'm doing them a huge favor."

Charles just continued giving her his patented "_you are in ginormous trouble and I am preposterously unhappy with you_" look.

Usually the look worked on Raven, because adamant as she was, growing up under Charles' watchful eyes taught her to know when she was in the wrong, even when she didn't want to admit it.

Unfortunately, tonight didn't seem to be one of those "usual" times. Raven just rolled her eyes and levelled Charles with a small glare of her own. "Don't give me that look, Charles you _know_ I'm right. C'mmon, _pleeeease_."

The pleading look she was giving him, the absolute conviction in her eyes that she was doing the right thing and that part of him that hesitantly admitted he would've done something similar eventually considering how he invaded their private thoughts just to figure out why they aren't together yet made Charles crumble bit by bit. Slowly, his disapproving glare softened and he sighed. He glanced around uncertainly for a few moments, contemplating and when he looked back at Raven she raised her eyebrows at him expectantly.

Charles rolled his eyes and released a weary sigh. He shook his head, muttered something akin to _what the bloody hell am I doing?_ under his breath and held his hand out to Raven. Raven grinned triumphantly and happily took it. When her hand was clutched in his, Charles closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to sneak his way into Sean's mind without being noticed, something that should, in theory, be easy because for one thing Sean wasn't the most, _aware_ person in the world and for another, if Raven was to be believed, he was drunk so that should make getting into his head a piece of cake.

It didn't take long and the next thing he knew, he was seeing through Sean's eyes and broadcasting the image to Raven like a human television.

Alex was sitting cross-legged on the floor a tall glass tumbler in his hand, half empty. He was sipping it quietly and for the most part he looked pretty normal. But there was a redness to his cheeks that was obviously due to alcohol and a quick jump into his head revealed muddled, jumbled thoughts that revealed he was indeed drunk. Sean's mind was in a similar state, except all his unfinished thoughts all had a common motif and Charles leaned forward involuntarily at where the thoughts and the alcohol were pushing Sean to go.

"Hey," Sean began.

Already knowing what he was about to say courtesy of Charles, Raven's hand tightened in anticipation, Charles squeezed it, telling her silently to calm down.

Alex looked up inquisitively and all of a sudden Sean couldn't look him in the eye so Raven and Charles were granted the image of Sean's lap above the plush red cushions of the window seat in the lounge. He fiddled with his fingers slightly as he asked.

"Is it true what they say about you?" Sean asked, simultaneously pulling up all the vague stories in his head that he gained from Raven, Moira and Hank about Alex's criminal record when he was too scared to ask Alex for it.

There was a shift in the atmosphere and Raven and Charles felt the sudden tension through Sean. Hesitantly, Sean looked up. Raven bit her lip at the cold, cagey look on Alex's face that Sean saw before he flinched and focused very intently on the barely noticeable mole on Alex's forehead.

"That depends, what do they say about me?" The steel in Alex's voice was unmistakable, it was like a knife, hovering a breath's width away from Sean's throat, threatening to cut into his skin if he uttered the wrong answer.

Sean chuckled uneasily and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. At this point, normal Sean would have the sense to back off and run but unfortunately the alcohol swirling around in his head ensured that he wasn't thinking straight and instead of dropping the subject in the face of Alex's obvious bristling, he pushed on.

"That you killed somebody, and that was why you were in prison?"

The look Alex was giving him could've been strong enough to cut through stone and Sean laughed nervously again as he launched immediately into a hurried semi-explanation, hands held up in front of him in a placating gesture.

"Not that I believe them you know, I mean I'm just curious, I've known you for what 3 months now and I—"

"And what if I tell you that it is?"

Alex's ice cold tone made Sean freeze, the fear he felt was strong enough to make Charles and Raven flinch slightly, as if Alex had just hit him.

"What is what?" Sean asked innocently, licking his lips nervously, trying to convince both Alex and himself that he heard wrong.

"What if I tell you that it's true? That I did kill somebody."

Charles wanted to jump into Alex's head to see what the blond boy was thinking, what he was feeling, but Sean's fear and his tension apropos to the millions of thoughts frantically racing in the redhead's head kept him anchored there, ready to take the reins and give him a way out if things ended badly.

Sean released another laugh, but this one sounded weak and incredibly forced.

"T-then, you probably had a good reason. You wouldn't…I mean you're…You're Alex, you're a good guy, you wouldn't do…that. Right?" Sean trailed off as Alex stood up, eyes glinting with something. Sean was held captive by his icy blue eyes but he didn't know what the look in them meant. Unable to resist, Charles reached out into the blond boy's mind and he frowned, now understanding that what was dancing about in Alex's eyes was the product of a lifetime of being misjudged. It was defensiveness and a bitter, cynical hope that Sean was different. Alex wanted to believe that he was but he's been wronged so many times he was finding it really hard to do so, that was why he was testing him, to see if he'd give in to expectations.

Alex stood up and took a step closer.

"Wouldn't I? What if I said I killed somebody just because?" he asked, and the bitterness in his tone was so intense, it drew Charles completely out of Sean's head and into Alex's.

There he saw that Alex was lying, he saw the man in the dark alley, beating up a teenager less than half his size, he felt Alex's horror, he felt his determination to help. He saw how Alex attempted to pull the man off only to get punched really hard in the face. Then he saw, he saw how, out of panicked desperation, Alex decided to try and knock the man down with his powers… and wound up ultimately killing him instead.

Charles shook his head in sympathy and he wanted to stop, feeling like he had seen too much of what he shouldn't already but Raven gripped his arm and dug her nails in. "Don't. If anyone could get through to him it's Sean. I want to see if he will, If he doesn't I'll go over there and _make _him." She muttered, almost vehemently. Charles swallowed and hesitantly moved back into Sean's head.

To his mild surprise, there was a firm, albeit slightly nervous determination firmly planted in Sean's mind.

"Then I wouldn't believe you." Sean replied.

Charles practically _heard_ Raven smiling.

Alex looked taken aback and Charles could see it again in his face that he wanted to believe Sean but the hope got snuffed out almost as soon as it appeared. Charles couldn't blame him, when they found him, it seemed that everyone who knew about him thought of him as a low, out of control criminal and Alex was too worn out by their unfit judgement, by glares and biting remarks accusing him of crimes he wasn't guilty of to let anyone in easily.

Raven, Charles and Sean all jumped back in their seats when Alex suddenly leaned down and placed his hands on either side of Sean, trapping him between himself and the window seat. His eyes glowed like ice blue crystals in the distance he was in. He smirked, trying to intimidate Sean into admitting he was just as scared, just as judgemental like all the had been no doubt.

"And what if…I kiss you right now?"

Raven let out a soft, somewhat scandalized gasp and Charles squeezed her hand again, telling her to be quiet, forgetting that they couldn't hear her.

There were too many thoughts in Sean's head, he didn't, for the life of him know what to say so what came out of his mouth was.

"You…I…W-what?"

There was a few seconds of silence and Charles watched the bitter smirk on Alex's lips, the hurt blossom in his eyes as he assumed the worst and mistook Sean's panic as revulsion.

"Y-You wouldn't. W-w-why would you want to kiss _me_?"

_I'm just a lanky, ugly ginger and you…_Sean's thoughts cut off as he took in the exquisitely chiselled lines of Alex's face, _you're damn gorgeous_

Raven twitched and Charles had the impression she was holding back either an excited squeal or an irritated groan. After all, Raven had good reason to want to hit anyone other than her who was having insecurity issues.

"What if I said I wanted to kiss you _because_ I want to do something a thousand times worse than that and scar you for life?"

Sean swallowed nervously.

"…you don't. I-if you did, you would have kissed me by now. And because you just _won't_. You're not like that." With all the overwhelming emotions pulsing through Sean's being Charles was surprised he managed to string together that sentence.

This time the look of surprise on Alex's face was a lot more obvious and he pulled back a little, wide eyes trained intently on Sean's face. There was a long moment when they just stared at each other and Charles could see it in Alex's face that his walls were crumbling.

After an eternity of a moment, Alex smirked, but there wasn't a trace of bitter disbelief in it this time and he released a single chuckle. Slowly he straightened up and still regarding Sean with that same smirk, he shook his head and patted Sean's cheek twice.

"You are a weird kid."

Sean blinked, unsure how he should respond to that, not that it mattered because without even giving him time to respond, Alex gripped the side of his head and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on Sean's forehead.

"Thanks carrot top."

Alex pulled away and just as he turned his back and started walking to the door, leaving a fairly stunned Sean behind, Charles finally decided that they've done enough intruding for one night and cut off the mind link.

Raven began to protest but before she could get more than one word out, since he'd violated his code on using his abilities anyway, he reached into her mind, erased all memories of tonight and put in an order for her to fall asleep, which she promptly did. Charles sighed heavily and moved to pick Raven up and tuck her in bed, where hopefully she'll get a good sleep and forget her intense motivation to meddle with Sean and Alex's lives. By what he'd seen tonight, perhaps they didn't need any meddling after all anyway, they'll get there eventually.

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><p>Or not.<p>

Charles thought the next day at breakfast as he watched Sean practically dip his bangs several times into his food with how low he was keeping his head bowed to avoid looking at Alex. Alex was acting like nothing was out of the ordinary except instead of sitting next to him like usual, he was sitting as far away from Sean as possible. Everyone in the table noticed, he knew they did without even having to tap into their thoughts and he exchanged a glance with Erik who merely shrugged and continued sipping his coffee.

He had no clue what happened, if anything did at all in between last night in the lounge and breakfast but if Sean and Alex were acting like this, he knew it was enough to worry about.

He spent the rest of breakfast and majority of the afternoon thinking about whether or not he should approach either Alex or Sean and casually ask them what was wrong and how he should if he were to actually do so. Half an hour before dinner, he'd come to the decision that there was no harm in seeing if they'd admit to him that something was off or not, so he set out to find them.

To his surprise, they were both in Sean's room and even more to his surprise, Raven was standing right outside the door, peeking in through a small crack.

Charles opened his mouth to call her and demand to know what on earth she was doing but before he could get a single syllable out, a familiar inhumanly pitched squeak echoed down the hall. Out of reflex, Charles reached out to Sean's mind to see if he was harmed in anyway and flinched, almost releasing a surprised "Gah!" at the sight that greeted him through Sean's eyes.

Alex's face was close, way too close, so as a reflex reaction triggered again by surprise, Charles leapt out of Sean's head and practically ran over to tug Raven away from the door. She yanked her arm out of his grasp when he grabbed it and he mouthed "What are you doing?" to her. If what he saw was anything to go by, he had a pretty good feeling that whatever's happening in that room wasn't for anyone to see.

Raven mouthed "just look" back to him and pointed at the small crack in the door. Charles shot her a disapproving look but leaned in to look anyway.

Alex had Sean pinned to the wall with one hand on each of his shoulders and their faces were close enough that from a distance it almost looked like they were kissing.

"Ok, spill, what's going on?"

"What'cha mean Alex?"

"Cut the bull, you've been avoiding me like I'd blast you to pieces the second I see you. What's up?"

"N-nothing's up, why would you think that something was up?"

Silence answered Sean's question and Charles assumed that Alex was giving him a look that said he wasn't buying it and that Sean better tell the truth soon or else.

Sean bit his lip for a long moment then hesitantly stuttered out a response.

"About um, about l-last night. What was…what was that about?"

And as he asked the question, images of Alex's face as he threatened to kiss him replayed themselves in Sean's head so vividly it was almost as if he were throwing the thoughts out to Charles.

There was a slight pause before Alex replied a bit defensively. "What was what about?"

Sean looked around nervously for a bit, then he asked. "Alex…are you…" a forced cough "you know…are you?"

Charles couldn't help himself, he bounded to Sean's head to see Alex's face. It was hard to decode what must be going on in the blond's mind, there were too many things playing about in his eyes, not to mention Sean was quite distracted by them (_God, are those eyes part of his mutation or something? They're like ice, or the sky. So goddamn blue, so,so,so pretty_) And his fixation with Alex's crystal-like irises was in turn distracting Charles.

"…and If I am?" Alex asked, his tone firm and just the slightest bit dangerous, daring Sean to answer.

"S-so…you are?"

Sean's response came out in the form of a squeak and Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Does it matter?"

Sean's heart rate was accelerating so fast, Charles could practically feel his own heart racing.

"No!" Sean said a little too fast and too loud. Alex drew back slightly in surprise at his outburst, eyebrows furrowing slightly in thought.

"I mean, n-no man, that's cool, like…you know, girls are annoying and loud and snobby and… and, you're too good for them anyway and..." Sean trailed off at the look on Alex's face and a blush slowly started creeping it's way up his cheeks. Alex was smirking but there was something in his eyes that softened it, made it seem nothing like the impish or abrasive smirks he usually wore on his lips and it made Sean's heartbeat go faster if possible. Alex released a very soft scoff

"You're blushing."

Sean opened his mouth to deny it although with his complexion it was virtually impossible to hide a blush but before he could get a word out, Alex leaned up and pressed his mouth to his.

Charles heard a sudden intake of breath next to him and that's when he remembered that Raven was standing next to him. He looked over to see her with her fist pressed against her mouth, her eyes positively giddy as she took in the sight of Alex and Sean _finally_ kissing away. Charles snuck another glance at the two young men, shook his head with a smile and this time ignored all protests and resistance as he dragged Raven off to finally give Sean and Alex the privacy that they deserved.

All qualms about having to interfere died out as he made his way down the hall with Raven in tow and Charles released a small sigh. Yup, this time he was sure they don't need any gentle nudging.

_Mmm, wow I never knew frenching was this good…Alex tastes like gum, it's kinda nice._

Charles shook his head, nope, not at all.

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><p>Reviews are love!<p>

and Havok/banshee needs more love!


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